I spent opening day sitting in the guide's house, drinking
coffee and finishing the work I didn't have time to do at home. It
was raining and I had to get this stuff done at some point, so I took a
rain day. Three of my friends were in camp with me and they weathered
the ugly conditions. Scott Prucha saw a nice buck that he would have
shot had it been 20 yards closer, but Kurt Schroeder and Joe Democko saw
nothing.

It was October 1, and this was my tenth trip to eastern Colorado in
the last nine years in search of world-class mule deer. My guide and
outfitter was Dan Ardrey, owner of Kiowa Creek Outfitters. I had hunted
with Dan several times in the past and we have accounted for some big
bucks. The track record speaks for itself. In the previous nine trips. I
had taken four bucks with an average gross score of more than 190
inches, and that includes one whitetail! My luck has certainly been
better than average on giant bucks.

We were hunting a ranch with two miles of creek bottom lined on
both sides by alfalfa fields. It had been a wet summer by Colorado
standards and the alfalfa was tall and lush. The mulies on the ranch
bedded in the tall grass of the cottonwood and willow choked creek
bottom all day. Then they waded belly deep into the fields each evening.
Dan had been watching and filming them all summer and when we got into
camp, he showed us the videos of entire herds of bucks--some well over
200 inches.

When hunting creek bottoms, you have two clear choices in strategy:
ground blinds or tree stands. We opted for tree stands on this trip,
though I had hunted the same ranch from ground blinds a few days during
the 2002 season when I chased a buck that would have scored over 210
inches.

The cover in the creek bottom ranges from 40 yards to over 200
yards at the widest point. Dan had located most of the tree stands along
trails he had seen bucks using as they went to the fields, and had
placed a few near bedding areas. One in particular was set in a
bottleneck that deer moving up and down the creek at random would be
sure to pass. When I was able to get started on the second morning I
went to that stand, where I saw only a doe and fawn working their way up
the bottom.

I liked the looks of the spot and decided to hunt the stand as
often as possible. I knew the potential of the ranch and also that
eventually every deer in that creek bottom would walk through that
bottleneck. So, I was back in the tree early that afternoon. I dropped
off Joe and Scott on my side of the creek and Dan went in to drop off
Kurt on the other side. I hadn't been on stand for more than 30
minutes when I looked up and saw a pair of good bucks walking and
browsing slowly toward me. I was cooling down on that hot afternoon and
didn't even have my facemask on yet.

One was a weird-horned mature buck with a massive four-point antler on one side and a big club with points going in every direction on the
other. If he had been the only deer coming my way, I would have shot him
and been proud of it. However, his running mate was a 5X5 that was
almost perfectly symmetrical. In the quick second I had, I chose to try
for the symmetrical buck.

The pair continued moving at a steady walk along a trail that led
from the direction where Kurt was hunting toward the ranch boundary.
They stopped several times to nip at grass along the trail.

I quickly ranged the first buck at 45 yards. He was the
funky-horned one. The second buck was following in his tracks. Hitting
full draw, I took a deep breath and waited. I wasn't exactly sure
what I was going to do next. Mule deer are very prone to jump the string
once they are alert, so I didn't want to stop him for the shot.
Yet, at this distance, I didn't want to take a walking shot either.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

The realization hit me that I didn't have a plan even before I
hit full draw, but I didn't have to deliberate long before the buck
gave me an easy solution. Three seconds after I settled in at full draw,
he paused for just a moment to nip at some grass. The gap between my
third and fourth pins quickly steadied on his chest and the arrow took
off as if it had a mind of its own.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

The hit was good and the buck ran only 50 yards before wilting into
the willow trees along the creek. The action had been so unexpected and
my hunt over so fast that the moment took my breath away. I had to sit
down to regain my composure. It was just the first half-hour of the
first afternoon of my hunt and I already had a dandy buck.

I hate to say it was easy, because big mule deer are never supposed
to be easy, but I guess in the course of hunting them for 10 years you
are going to get a few tap-ins. This buck grossed 182 inches.

Of the five deer I have shot in the eastern plains of Colorado, I
have shot four of them from tree stands. I took two of those during the
early season, one during the rut and one during the late season. I have
chased some whoppers during the five unsuccessful hunts, mostly on the
ground in wide-open country. That's a tough task.

Why Stands Are Easier

Spot and stalk hunting for mule deer with a bow is exciting, but it
is also notoriously difficult. I've killed just one big mulie after
a stalk, but I have messed up many others. I have concluded that for the
average bowhunter, tree stand hunting is much easier--and it is
definitely easier for the average whitetail hunter who doesn't
spend much time honing the necessary stalking skills.

You won't get as many opportunities or see as much action when
hunting from a tree, but the shots are generally closer and much more
controlled. In the end, the success rate improves. You can set the shots
up the way you want them and as the deer approaches, you can ready
yourself and control the timing. Those are important elements of any
successful encounter. The action during a stalk is always spontaneous
and unpredictable. The shots are often difficult since you can't
control angle, brush or range nearly as well. Sure, spontaneous action
is exciting and breathtaking, but it is also nice to fill tags. So when
given an option between stalking and ambushing, I'll take the
ambush.

In addition, tree stand hunting is a low impact way to hunt. You
aren't nearly as likely to run a big buck out of a creek bottom
where he is feeding in nearby fields when hunting from a stand. For
example, I mentioned a buck I hunted in 2002. I spent nine days trying
to shoot that buck. I stuck with tree stands to keep from boogering him,
and I was into him every day.

I had several agonizingly close calls during those nine days that
could have easily gone my way, but they didn't. That buck never
knew I was hunting him, up to the very end. He was still there when I
had to leave, visible from the upper level of an old barn we used when
glassing to determine his patterns and set up our traps. There is no way
I could have kept a big mature buck that relaxed for nine days of solid
hunting pressure if I had gone after him on foot each day. After one or
two foiled attempts, he would have been over the fence on the next
ranch-for good.

Mule Deer Behavior

Of course, to be a successful tree stand hunter you need to know as
much as you can about the animal you are trying to ambush. Mule deer
aren't exactly like whitetails, but they have enough in common when
you hunt them near their feeding areas that you can use the same basic
approach. The biggest difference is a mulie's tendency to roam
more. For example, even during the early season, well before the rut, a
big mule deer is not as inclined to live his life between specific
feeding areas and specific bedding areas. He may hang around a certain
field for a week and then just up and leave and not show up again for
two more weeks.

Mule deer are also more prone to use widely separate bedding areas
and seemingly random trails every day when accessing a feeding area. It
is nothing for a mule deer to bed a mile up the creek one day and a mile
down the creek the next day and feed in the same field both evenings.
Worse yet, they may feed a mile up the creek one day and two miles down
it the next. This level of unpredictability makes it tough to pin them
down, but they are more visible during the day than whitetails, which
keeps you in the game.

You can watch where a mule deer beds in the morning and then set an
ambush based on that information for the afternoon hunt. In the open
country of creek bottom feeding areas, you can find them nearly every
day if the bucks are on the property.

Rut Hunts From Stands

Dan Ardrey also does most of his rut hunting from tree stands or
ground blinds. He uses the blinds in sage flats and the stands in creek
bottoms and pine foothills. I shot a nice 4X4 from a stand during the
rut of late November in 1997. That buck was out cruising. My guide,
Bobby Benison, and I spotted the buck from the vehicle. Bobby had a
stand in the direction the buck was going and dropped me off. The stand
overlooked the lower end of a ditch that cut deeply into the hill.
Rather than cross the ditch, the buck detoured around the bottom and
came past for a 40-yard shot. That hunt only lasted 20 minutes total.

Mule deer are much like whitetails during the rut; they cruise
around constantly looking for does. That creates a great opportunity to
ambush them in areas where the terrain or cover creates a bottleneck.
There are also areas that pull the does during November. During other
parts of the season, there may not be any mature bucks within miles, but
during the rut, these doe concentration areas (usually the same places
year after year) are where the bucks go for action. These are great
places to place your tree stand or ground blind.

Late Season Stands

I've never had much success stand hunting during the late
season, so I have little to offer in the way of wisdom. I did shoot a
big whitetail from a tree stand in the eastern plains of Colorado in
late December, 2000, but despite three or four trips during this period,
I have yet to shoot a mule deer. They are not moving much in late
December and generally are out of the creek bottoms and onto the flats
staging for winter. Often, this means they are spending time in the
wide-open sage areas and bedding in gullies and ditches. Those are tough
stand hunting and tough stalking conditions. I'll have to try
ground blinds in that situation more on future December hunts.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Conclusion

I love stalking in the open plains. But, when trying to arrow big
mule deer in areas where there are trees, you will find me in a tree
every time. An ambush (ground blinds included) produces the higher odds.
If you like to fill tags the easy way, don't overlook tree stand
hunting for mule deer.

Editor's Note: All deer hunting in eastern Colorado is
determined by drawing with a deadline in early April each year. For more
information, contact: Kiowa Creek Outfitters, Dept. PB, P.O. Box 298,
Elbert, CO 80106; (303) 648-3273.

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